The president has become too powerful relative to Congress, former General Electric boss Jack Welch told CNBC on Friday, as optimism increased for a debt ceiling extension and an agreement to end the 11-day government shutdown.

"That's been happening for a long time and it's accelerated this time" under President Barack Obama, said Welch, executive chairman of the management institute at Strayer University that bears his name.

President Obama has changed "15 regulations at least" from the time Obamacare was law, he said. "Law in enforced by regulation. He changed the employer mandate. He put Congress in. He did a whole series of things," Welch said.